Every year in late April or early May, the NFL gathers to select the newest members of its teams. The draft has become a bigger and bigger spectacle over the course of the last few year, but in the end the draft is what makes or breaks teams. I have attempted to identify some groups that seem to be on the up and up after this draft, and groups that will appear to continue suffering in the current NFL landscape. For teams it’s about improving their squads in the short and long run; for other groups I define winners and losers as to how well I think their ability to cash in on the NFL billions is indicated by behavior seen this year.

Winners:

Florida State: The Seminoles are appearing to the newest incarnation of the Florida to NFL pipeline, setting the NFL record for most players drafted over a three-year span. More importantly, the last three starting quarterbacks from Florida St. have been first-round selections (Jamies Winston, EJ Manuel, Christian Ponder) with Winston being the top pick in this years draft despite numerous off the field concerns. Jimbo Fisher has built a team where he can assure players that he can get them to the league — not a bad recruiting tool.

Philadelphia Eagles/ Cleveland Browns: I am never a huge fan of teams mortgaging their entire future to land a single player, no matter how good. The kind of rumors that were swirling around this pick involved multiple number ones as well as elite veteran players. If either of these teams were able to pull off this kind of trade, they would have gotten a very good quarterback prospect in Mariota but wouldn’t have had the ability to surround him with talent. Everyone thought RG3 was worth what the Redskins gave up, and look where they are now. By the Eagles and Browns not being able to give so much to the Titans for Mariota, they were both able to address other issues on both sides of the football and didn’t give up future players that will help them build contenders for years to come.

New Orleans Saints: The Saints had a great draft in my estimation. The team drafted Stanford OT Andrus Peat with its first selection to shore up a shaky offensive line; used the pick from the Jimmy Graham trade to take tackling machine Stephone Anthony at the end of the first round; and got an elite corner prospect out of the second. The Saints also seemingly picked a potential heir to Drew Brees in Colorado St.’s Garret Grayson, a player who, while not having great measurables, has the “it” factor that QB’s need. With at least a year or two to learn the NFL ways, it will be interesting to see how Grayson ends up in a few seasons.

Losers:

Seattle Seahawks: My deep hatred of the Seahawks only plays a bit into this selection in my losers column, but mostly because they are simply an example of a greater theme, and I think they only got one potential difference maker. The Hawk’s selected Frank Clark, a very talented defensive lineman from Michigan. The only issue is that Clark was kicked off the team in February for suspicion of domestic violence. In a media setting where this stuff isn’t getting swept under the rug anymore, guilt is presumed in the public eye. It was an interesting choice to make the face of their draft.

Quarterbacks: After Winston and Mariota, both of which have flags on them, this class was widely panned. The guys that did get taken ended up in great spots (Bryce Petty to the Jets was one of my favorite picks), but on the whole it appears that unless you are an elite prospect, there isn’t much room for you in the NFL draft. Teams want stars (who go top 10) or backups who don’t garner much money initially.

Guys with Drug Histories: Shane Ray and Randy Gregory both got popped for non-violent crimes (marijuana possession/failed drug tests) in the weeks leading up to the draft. Unfortunately for them they fell precipitously because of their relationship with weed. Gregory was being projected to go top five before his incident, with Ray going around 15. Both players lost millions of dollars from getting caught with drugs. There seems to be an impetus to get guys that can at least test clean in the NFL, lest they be suspended under the substance abuse policy.

“You’re wrong.” Those are the very simple words that former NFL star turned inmate Aaron Hernandez mouthed to the jury as they read the verdict for the first of many criminal trials. A few short weeks ago on April 15, Hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder for extreme cruelty in the death of Odin Lloyd, his sister-in-law’s boyfriend. Hernandez, barring successful appeal, will sit in prison for the rest of his natural life, but the fact that he got to where he was in his life is extraordinary knowing what we do now. Hernandez somehow was able to have a secret life as a serial shooter without anyone being wiser until he got sloppy.

Hernandez always had trouble with the law. He failed multiple drug tests for marijuana at the University of Florida. He fell in the NFL draft down to the fourth round despite being an elite talent, but then he still couldn’t get it together. During the trial, a friend of Hernandez testified that Hernandez smoked up to an ounce of weed a day while in the NFL. How this got past the NFL’s drug testing system that has effectively ended the careers of several players like Justin Blackmon, Josh Gordon and put a huge roadblock in front of Ricky Williams remains a mystery. The fact that Hernandez was never caught is obviously a huge red flag in terms of the effectiveness of the system in place. But smoking weed isn’t the worst thing a person can do, despite what the NFL punishments are. What came out regarding the violence in Hernandez’s past should worry everyone, not just those in charge of NFL discipline.

We like to think that we “know” our athletes. We watched with awe as Johnny Football partied his way to the Heisman and then to rehab. We see athletes try to inspire and put their feet in their mouths on Twitter all the time. But we never think that there is a legitimate serial murderer in the public spotlight. Hernandez started all this back in 2007 (as far as we know) when he punched a bouncer in the head so hard he ruptured an eardrum. Only five months later Hernandez was questioned about a shooting in which he was involved, but not a suspect. Hernandez apparently was then able to keep his nose clean long enough to win a BCS Championship, get drafted and win a Super Bowl. Five months after the Super Bowl win, however, it appears that Hernandez shot and killed two men in a drive-by shooting. This will be Hernandez’s next legal trial, which he should have plenty of time to mull over in his cell. Then in February 2013, Hernandez allegedly shot an associate in the face leaving him blind in one eye. After all of this, Hernandez killed Odin Lloyd in June of 2013, bringing all of these infractions to light and getting thrown in jail for the rest of his life.

How in the world does this happen? Obviously if the cops didn’t know about these instances, it is hard to blame the NFL for not stepping in, but a murderer was in the NFL for four entire years before he got sloppy enough to get caught. The body count as it stands right now is three with the possibility of five. In a world where what Tom Brady eats for breakfast makes news, we intrude on rehab stays, suspend people for having a single beer and have video tape of some allegedly deflating footballs, the NFL failed to kick out a murderer until the courts did it for them. If the NFL is going to have people take its personal conduct policy seriously, maybe it needs to keep a closer eye on its multimillion dollar men.

Now while the story I am about to tell is mostly true, details have been changed to protect the innocent as they were involved in the story. But the fear, passion, elation and misery that is discussed is all too real. I don’t recommend doing this to anyone, unless they want to feel completely at a loss for words.

For those who don’t act like total morons on a regular basis, the Jaeger Challenge involves splitting a fifth of Jaeger with another human and drinking it as quickly has possible. I decided the best way to do this would be a “reverse Jaeger bomb” complete with shot of Redbull dropped into my 10 shots. Now I wasn’t a total fool. I didn’t drink a drop heading into my highlight for election into the “What was he thinking?” Hall of Fame. This was by far my saving grace, as when I saw my “challengers,” the other pair of dudes who would be racing us, they promptly barfed everywhere. Now I knew I had an iron stomach, trained on McDonald’s and Taco Bell, which prepared me for this very moment. After finishing my drink in 6.7 seconds, it was one of the most bizarre evenings of my entire life.

The first feeling upon completion was sheer terror. As the licorice flavored poison settled into my body my head went into overdrive. Am I going to barf? Where should I barf if I need to barf? Wait, I’m not going to barf. That repeated about 100 times in about 15 minutes would be accurate description of the first wave of post challenge excitement.

The next several hours — four, to be exact — were pretty much an exercise on how quickly my stomach could process what I just decided would be a good idea to consume. Now reminding you I was completely sober heading into this, that after the first half an hour I started to get that nice buzz warm feeling you get after your first drink or two. Over the next hour or so, I got to a nice “very drunk” phase in my night. The only alarming part was that I had since stopped drinking and was continuing to feel drunker every passing minute. This is alarming for two reasons. Aside from the whole “health” myth, first I didn’t know when it would stop, and second I could only fear what was coming for me the next morning.

I returned home to my house mates blaring loud music and feeling great, so naturally I joined them in the festivities until the alcohol successfully sedated me. Then I returned to my bed and waited for what I had coming. The next morning could only be described as predictable. My hangover was mild at worst, and I felt ready to go. This all changed when I returned to the scene of previous nights crime and smelled the black licorice death. The overwhelming odor caused me to immediately question my existence as a man and have not been able to come within 15 feet of a bottle of sweet German liquor ever since.

The NBA Playoff schedule, unlike its college equivalent, is the result of extreme exertion, coaching battles and a test of endurance rarely seen in other sports. It also puts a premium on being good early to be able to save yourself for the end. If a playoff team goes to seven games in every series (an unlikely possibility), it would play an extra 28 games, or about a third of the regular NBA season. Because of this, teams look to explode out of the gate to get some extra rest, and this year the West is a battlefield while the East is, for the most part, a cakewalk.

The Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers headline the East. The Hawks have taken on a new system of increased specialization and incredible efficiency to take the top seed without a legitimate MVP candidate. The Cavaliers took the opposite approach with the newest version of the NBA’s Big 3 trend. The holdover superstar Kyrie Irving, combined with the return of LeBron James and the addition of Kevin Love, makes the Cavs a legit title contender. The biggest story for the Cavs is the midseason addition of Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to add the kind of spark that Cleveland had previously been missing. The rest of the conference seems to be at least one step behind each of these teams, so we may see an incredible battle of matchup vs. system that tends to have long-lasting implications for how teams are formed.

The West, as mentioned before, is more competitive than it has been in a long time. The last team in, the New Orleans Pelicans, beat out the Oklahoma City Thunder, who feature scoring title holder Russell Westbrook. The Pelicans are tough inside and out with Anthony Davis becoming the superstar everyone thought he would be. They will presumably get rocked by the Warriors, whose combination of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson makes up the best shooting backcourt of all time. The Warriors are now getting enough out of young stalwarts like Draymond Green to think they can make a title run. Seeds two through six is where the real tension lies. As of a few weeks ago, the San Antonio Spurs were sitting in the seventh seed, went on an 11-game winning streak, got up to the second seed, lost once and dropped to sixth seed, where they sit now. The Spurs are one of the most consistent teams in the history of sports but have a tough first-round matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers.

I see the Clippers being able to take the Spurs in a long-and-hard fight series and actually pull a huge upset over the Rockets to meet up with the Warriors in Western Conference Finals. The bad blood between these two teams is no secret and would give reverence to the Lakers vs. Kings battles of the early Shaq and Kobe vs. Chris Webber days. The shooting of Steph Curry and the surprisingly strong interior will let the Warriors sneak past the Clippers only to be met by a storming Cavaliers team. I think the emotion of returning home and getting that close lets Cleveland take home their first title since 1964. LeBron would cement his legacy as one of the greatest players ever and probably have a life-size statue built outside the stadium before the confetti hit the floor.

March is always the time in which even the most casual sports fan hits a fever pitch of excitement as there is more basketball that can physically be watched for two weekends. This year was different though, as the tournament had several other enticing aspects to follow. Obviously there was the undefeated superteam from Kentucky, but in a lesser-known aspect this year a huge move in sports betting was made. That doesn’t even mention the fact that Duke was able to bring home their fifth title.

John Calipari has made his mark on college basketball by being one of the best recruiters of all time, but rarely do his players stick around very long. The use of one-and-done athletes has been the ire of some, but the results are undeniable. The difference this year was that a group of sophomores decided to stick around, creating one of the most promising teams in the history of college basketball. The Wildcats tore through the tournament and delivered record-setting television numbers to boot. They were dropped in the Final 4 by Wisconsin, but to pretend this tournament wasn’t riding on the backs of Kentucky’s pursuit of a 40-0 perfect season would be absurd. Kentucky’s Elite 8 and Final 4 games became the most watched college basketball games ever, and the empire that Calipari has constructed was clearly the main force behind those games.

After Kentucky lost, the chance to witness history was pretty much eliminated this year. Coach Krzyzewski (“K”) of Duke is closing in on several records, but they all appear to be a few years away. What could be altering the sports landscape on a historic level soon, however, is legalized gambling. New Jersey is already in a battle to legalize gambling, and with new pioneers in the field there is reason to believe its only going to grow. New NBA commissioner Adam Silver is actually in favor of legalizing sports betting on a national level, and given some of the numbers that Silver is able to draw upon, it is hard to keep the argument against sports betting alive. Silver’s main claim was that sports betting is already rampant, but the government and sports leagues just aren’t taking advantage of it. This seems to be an easy cop-out for a league attempting to boost viewership, but Silver’s claim that more people filled out online NCAA tournament brackets than voted in the last general election makes it hard to deny that legalizing sports betting is a logical step in creating a more fan-friendly sports experience.

As for the tournament in general, it was its usual craziness, with 3-seeds Baylor and Iowa St. dropping in the first round. Then we saw 1-seed Villanova fail to get to the Sweet 16. Wichita St. continues to be a tournament darling and Kansas can’t seem to get a grasp on the Missouri Valley Conference as they fell victim to the Shockers in the third round. Bob Huggins’ full court press and intensity on the offensive glass shocked Maryland into several turnovers, but West Virginia played an embarrassing game against Kentucky in one of the worst blowout losses in the tournament’s history.

The madness ended on Monday night in what will go down as one of the most frustrating NCAA finals in recent memory. With Duke star Jahlil Okeafor battling foul trouble the entire game, Wisconson was able to hold a small lead for the majority of the second half. Then two brutal missed calls gave Duke two extra possessions near the end of the game and make the victory that much easier for the Blue Devils to hold on to. Claiming Duke doesn’t win without those calls is far from my intent, but you never want that “what if” hanging over your title.

Last month, the Big Ten Conference made a proposal that would render academic first-years ineligible to play in certain sports. The main focus would be to curtail the athlete-student dilemma that the NCAA is dealing with, as well as try to better prepare athletes for college life. As with many of these stories, this “year of readiness,” as proponents have dubbed it, mainly focuses on football and men’s basketball.

The reasoning behind the plan is to ensure that students are comfortable and adequately adjusted to college life before they begin to take on the challenges that come with being a serious varsity athlete. This logic seems to fall apart pretty quickly, though, when they decide that only the two money making sports in the NCAA would be subject to the new rule. Title IX issues aside (the new program would require freshman men to take a year off but not freshman women), it seems to be completely condescending to those athletes that dedicate the same amount of time and energy to their teams but don’t appear on television. If the NCAA was serious about trying to ensure that kids were ready for their lives as student-athletes, the entire program would have to be much farther reaching.

In addition to the logistic issues of creating such a system, it would cause a huge divide in what different teams would be able to do with different players. If the Big Ten Conference enacted such a policy, the Pac-12 would likely endorse it. How would that affect their ability to recruit, especially if the policy wasn’t adopted universally in the Power Five conferences? And if the Power Five did enact, would players look elsewhere for better playing time or even to lower divisions? Seeing as so much energy is put into recruiting high school athletes, putting in a giant barrier would be the last thing several of these team may want to do.

The last, but honestly most fun, option is that a handful of these athletes could simply stop going to school. When the NBA initiated their new one-year age limit, we saw several players go overseas for a season instead of playing for free in the NCAA. Now, after this year of readiness plan, a player would either have to try and get drafted having never played college basketball or lose two potential money-making years in college. This might not sound like a huge inconvenience, but the first four picks in last year’s NBA draft have all been one-and-done college athletes. This new rule would cost each player affected at the top of the draft millions of dollars.

With basketball, the presence of global alternatives presents a one-of-a-kind difficulty. For football there is already a rule that requires a player to be three years removed from their high school graduating class. This hasn’t been an issue in terms of monopolizing the market for young athletes. After getting the right to play freshmen in 1972, there has been little conversation about when players should get the right to play. There isn’t an easy solution unless it just becomes a mandatory redshirt season.

The entire thing reeks of the NCAA trying to show that they want get back to academics, but actions speak louder than words. The NCAA allowed huge conference realignments and creations over the course of the last few years that have increased travel for players in order to get more marquee match ups. If the NCAA cared about academics, would it allow Texas A&M and Missouri to move from the Big 12 to SEC despite the increased travel and inconvenience to athletes? The NCAA also allowed the formation American Athletic Conference, which includes teams from Connecticut to Florida to Texas. The NCAA cares about cash and that’s about it. This move was brought about by a conference that might still care. The NCAA would never allow its precious money-making first-years to sit on the year instead of making them millions of dollars of its own accord.

The entire plan is still in the very preliminary stages, so it would be pretty unlikely that we see these changes in the near future. This could have very long lasting implications on the college sports landscape though. In an era where college teams are traveling more than ever and television contracts are getting even more profitable, this seems to be a move back towards academics, or it at least looks that way on paper. The only question is whether it proves to be effective at getting kids ready for school or if it backfires and stops athletes from attending entirely.

The NBA has one of the most intense trade deadlines in all of sports. With a player movement system that caters to big moves and the increasing value of draft picks, this year had the makings to be an exciting deadline. Leading up to the Feb. 19 deadline, there were rumors of some big moves to be made, but no one foresaw the magnitude of what actually happened.

The first was when the Portland Trailblazers gave up three players off their bench in order to land Denver Nuggets swingman Aaron Afflalo. This move gives Portland an elite bench player to back up Wes Matthews and captain their second unit of players. But the action was far from over as plenty of pieces still needed to be moved.

The Phoenix Suns learned what having too much of a good thing was like; they had three starting-caliber point guards, and it was clear one needed to go. Goran Dragic increasingly seemed to be the odd man out and had stated his desire to leave the desert, so it was no surprise when Dragic was shipped with his little brother, Zoran, to the Heat as they reloaded for a playoff run. What surprised people was that the Suns also swapped their second point guard, Isaiah Thomas, in another deal and landed the Bucks’ Brandon Knight.

The Suns were only able to pull this off because the Milwaukee Bucks were able to pick up reigning rookie of the year Michael Carter-Williams from the 76ers. No one really knows what is going on in Philly, as they also got rid of rookie K.J. McDaniels and traded for overpaid and highly erratic center JaVale McGee.

Disgruntled Oklahoma City guard Reggie Jackson set off another string of trades later in the day. Jackson had been a role player in the shadow of superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and was itching for a bigger role. Jackson ended up getting sent up north to Detroit, a team that is looking to ease the blow of losing Brandon Jennings to a season ending achilles injury earlier this season. In return, the Thunder picked up offensive-minded big man Enes Canter from Utah.

The move gives the Thunder another inside scorer and potential for the ability to have a strong frontcourt when paired with Steven Adams.

The biggest story of the entire deadline might have been the interesting decision by two teams to take a trip down memory lane, seemingly in exchange for immediate results.

The Minnesota Timberwolves drafted Kevin Garnett all the way back in 1995 when this year’s rookies were barely starting their lives. Garnett played with them until 2007 when he was moved to the Boston Celtics. Garnett has stated in the past how he intends to buy the team at some point, and his involvement with the organization appears to have started sooner rather than later. The Wolves have brought KG back to help mature their bevy of young talent. Garnett has always been known as a highly aggressive, fiery player, and Minnesota is hoping some of that energy brings a culture of winning.

The second big story was the Pistons decision to bring back Tayshaun Prince, who was a key piece to their early 2000s Championship teams. The move seems more like a symbolic attempt to try and return a winning attitude to the Pistons, who have struggled recently.

Whether teams were loading up for the playoffs, dumping salary and talent for picks, building for the future or making good on previous promises, this was one of the most exciting trade deadlines in recent memory. It’s a shame it only comes around once a year.

In the last month we have seen two historic coaches reach a milestone signifying a lifetime of hard work and dedication to the sport of basketball. Both Duke Coach Mike Kryzewski and San Antonio Spur’s coach Gregg Popovich reached 1,000 wins in their respective leagues, adding another accolade to the impeccable resumes each has put together in their careers.

In college basketball there is a fair amount of coaching movement depending on the level of the program. Coach K started his head coaching career in 1975 with the Army Black Knights, a team for which he played his college hoops. After five years at West Point Coach, K moved to Duke, and he has since had one of the most prestigious careers in the history of basketball. Even after being elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, Kryzewski still hasn’t rested on his laurels and has continued to keep Duke an elite program.

This year is no different as Duke is currently ranked fourth in the country as the season heads towards March, and the Blue Devils are positioning themselves for a deep tourney run. With all of this, Coach K continues to extend his lead as the all time winningest coach in college basketball history. Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim is second at 964, so there is no letting up for Kryzewski as his mark of 1,004 is not anywhere near safe. The consistency of Duke has been their biggest asset, only missing the NCAA tourney once since their first appearance under coach K in 1984. Kryzewski has also been busy on the international level, coaching Team USA since 2006.

The only real comparison for Coach K at the NBA level right now would be the renowned Gregg Popovich. The surly coach of the Spurs hasn’t exactly loved dealing with the media during his success in San Antonio and has made some enemies in the league offices along they way, but his on-court successes are undeniable. Popovich recently clinched his 1,000th win with the Spurs against the Pacers. Popovich now trails only Jerry Sloan’s 1,221 wins with the Utah Jazz in most wins with a single franchise. What Popovich has been able to deliver that Sloan never did, though, is a championship pedigree. Pop has brought home the Larry O’Brien trophy five times to San Antonio reaching back to 98-99 season when Tim Duncan, the man who has taken the title of best Power Forward ever from Sloan’s Karl Malone, was just getting his start. Popovich has been so dominant during his NBA tenure that he owns a winning record over every other franchise, has only missed the playoffs once and has finished in the top two of his division ever since his second season.

Both Popovich and Kryzewski have taken interesting routes to their success. Kryzewski has been slow to adapt to the one-and-done style of recruiting that has swept elite college basketball as of late, instead wanting to develop his players into his system before sending them on their way. Because of this Kryzewski has lost out on some the nations top prospects, but players like Kyrie Irving, and potentially Jahlil Okeafor, have shown that Kryzewski is willing to make exceptions for rare talents.

Popovich has taken a similarly old-school style approach as of late. Looking at the Spurs roster, almost half the team is non-U.S. born. Popovich has taken a liking to the European style of coaching, one that emphasizes fundamentals and passing over the isolation game that the United States AAU basketball system seems to love.

Neither Coach has really hinted at when they think they will step down. Popovich has been rumored to be making his exit with Duncan as he wouldn’t want to cycle thought a rebuild at his age. Kryzewski is a different story, with no real news at all about his impending retirement. The only thing that is for sure is that neither will be around forever and their 1,000 win milestones are just a testament to the greatness we have all been blessed to witness.

Basketball appears to be the next frontier of advanced statistics after teams trying to get an edge have nearly exhausted baseball. Now, when you follow the NBA you often hear of things like Player Efficiency Rating (PER), which is comparable to baseball’s Wins Above Replacement (WAR). As a result of this challenge to become more calculating and efficient, however, we see an interesting trend. It all started with the Houston Rockets and is now perpetuated by several other teams in the league.

The Rockets’ plan was a pretty simple one in terms of thought process. They simply wondered, “What can we do to maximize our expected points each and every time down the court?”’ The answer they derived was also fairly intuitive. They were going to shoot a lot of three pointers and to attack the rim as much as possible. By eliminating long two pointers, they maximized expected value (good three-point shooters can average 1.3–1.5 points per shot) or maximized percentage of scoring (layups are scored at a higher rate than 20-foot jumpers). And because of this, the first real implementation of analytics in basketball was born. Not everyone claims to be a fan, but the implementation of similar systems around the league is undeniable.

For the first time in the history of the NBA, there were more three-point shot attempts in a month than there were free throw attempts. The bonuses are obvious: A three pointer gives you more points than shots that typically result in free throws. What is startling, however, is the sheer number of three pointers being shot around the league.

Looking across the league, the NBA threes are skyrocketing, but on an individual level this appears to be the golden age of elite outside shooters. The Atlanta Hawks’ Kyle Korver, a journeyman sharpshooter who appears to have found a home, is on pace for the first 50/50/90 season in NBA history. This would mean that Korver made 50 percent of his total field goals and three pointers, while also making 90 percent of his free throw attempts.

Korver thrives in the catch-and-shoot system of offense that the Hawks are currently running. This style also happens to be by far the most efficient in terms of raising a team’s shooting percentage on long balls. The Hawks might not publicize their attempts to use these theories on the court like the Rockets did, but they certainly are making use of them.

On the other side of the country we see players like Klay Thompson, who capped a record-setting 37-point quarter last week by going 9-9 from the three-point range.

If players are going to keep getting better at the three-point shot, there will continue to be an increased emphasis on it. As NBA All-Star and former NBA champion Chris Bosh put it when asked about his new tendency to shoot the long ball, “I’ll start dunking again when it gives me three points.” The game gets significantly more complex when a team has an elite outside threat capable of scoring points in a hurry.

The other upside to having the focus of a roster on making the outside shot is the ability to maintain an advantage for a longer period of time. Players like Dwyane Wade have struggled to adapt their game as their bodies start to age and athleticism goes, conversely you have players like Ray Allen, Mike Miller and Korver, who seem to have eternal life on the court.

The movement toward increased analytic approaches using probability and expected value theory isn’t going away. In fact, if anything, it’s only going to get bigger as teams become more successful in implementing systems similar. As teams improve and cut out “wasted plays,” we could see an offensive explosion around the league as team craft offenses to run like well-oiled machines, cranking out as many points per possession as humanly possible.

The Patriots certainly know how to make things interesting. The Pats have been to six Superbowls since 2000, and never has the game been decided by more than four points. This year was not unusual for the Patriots as they completed the largest fourth-quarter comeback in Superbowl history to take the 28-24 victory over the Seahawks.

The game opened with the teams cautiously feeling the aura of the game, with the first quarter yielding no scoring from either side. The Pats had threatened in the first quarter, only to be intercepted by Jeremy Lane on the goal line, who then suffered a gruesome wrist injury on the interception return. Tom Brady and the Patriots opened up the scoring with a passing touchdown to Brandon Lafell in the beginning of the second quarter.

The Hawks were able to answer with their own long drive – capitalized by a Marshawn Lynch touchdown run, exciting Whitman campus with an audible roar. Chris Matthews, who was working at Footlocker only three weeks ago, was able to answer the Pats second touchdown with a back-shoulder fade as the first half ended in a 14-14 draw.

The third quarter was all Hawks as Russell Wilson found Doug Baldwin for a touchdown, followed by a Steven Haushka field goal giving the Hawks a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter. The Patriots looked to be on their heels against the Seahawks’ onslaught, but the fourth quarter would prove to be the deciding segment.

After regaining control of the ball, Tom Brady found Danny Amendola for a touchdown with about eight minutes left. Brady would finish the game off with another score to Julian Edelman just before the two-minute warning.

The path looked daunting for the Seahawks until an incredible bobbling catch by Jermain Kearse let the Hawks down to the New England seven. The catch looked to be the most recent chapter of Patriots being beaten by an iconic catch on the final drive of a Superbowl.

The Seahawks then drove down to the goal line with 30 seconds in the game. Instead of running with Marshawn again, the Hawks tried a slant route to Ricardo Lockette, which was intercepted and returned to the two yard line. A personal foul on Bruce Irvin after a kneel down brought the ball out to the seventeen and the game to an end.

The play call has been the subject of much scrutiny in the short time since the game, but with one timeout and second and goal, along with Wilson playing a relatively conservative game up to that point, the call made sense. Several parts of the execution were off; the ball was too high, the pick too short and the read done before the snap not comprehensive enough. However, it has to be said that the play by Malcolm Butler was one of the best of the game.

Tom Brady was awarded the Superbowl MVP award and his fourth Superbowl. He also set numerous career Superbowl records during the game. Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady now go down as the most victorious Coach/QB duo in the history of the NFL.